Settings in FiMFiction · 1:31am May 19th, 2016
After reading Gazing to the Ocean of the Sky by David Silver, and Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls by thatguyvex; I noticed that the qualities most fanfiction stories suffer from is their author’s lack of attention to, and poor implementation of one thing: Setting.
So, since the purpose of this blog is to help improve the overall quality of fanfiction (specifically in the Brony Fandom), I figured that a post regarding settings would be fitting.
Just a fair warning, this one’s gonna be a really long one, and will have spoilers here and there.
So, let us get started on Settings in FiMFiction.
What is a setting?
First off, we need to define what setting actually is. My Fundamentals of Literature Interpretation class gave a pretty good definition for it in a study guide completely dedicated to it. It described it as,
“the time and place of a story; it's whatever the author uses to create an environment for the plot and character to act.”
That’s pretty simple, right? While it is, many people don’t seem to fully realize what settings are really supposed to do in a story. They’re like that unsung hero that makes such a difference without anyone ever noticing until they’re gone; and even then, they don’t understand why something’s not working out the way they expected it to. Without a setting, a story can feels bland and uninteresting.
What Does a Setting do for a Story?
Take the settings of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for example. Yes, we have fantastic cast of characters that can easily entertain us; and the adventures they go on can be inspiring, thought-provoking, and even simply entertaining to us.
However, the Brony fandom does not just love the show simply for the main cast of characters and their adventures. Think about everything else going on around them. What are all the background characters doing? What does the scenery look like? What kind of sounds do we hear? Not only that, but what’s the world like? What kind of government do we see? What’s the characters’ state of living? What kind of history is there? What are the overall moods of the towns?
We usually don’t tend to think about these things, but they play a very important role in the stories we watch and read. They can even bring their own bit of entertainment and life to the story. Seriously, if it wasn’t for the setting of the show, where would we get Vinyl Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, Derpy, Octavia, BonBon, Doctor Whooves, Big Lebowski Pony, and the like from?
While a story in among itself can be a beautiful jewel, the setting is the crown/bracer/sword/ring it is set in. Now think about that analogy. Those items can give a jewel a very different image than if it was by itself, or with any of the other items.
To even further demonstrate what a setting can do for a story, pick a plot from an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and change its setting to a post-apocalyptic one. Don’t use the exact one from Kkat’s Fallout: Equestira. Take everything from the episode you picked, and change it to fit in a post-apocalyptic setting. Try to imagine how that plot you picked would play out. Now do it with a Steampunk setting with all of it’s steam-powered machines integrated into everyday life. Now a high-tech sci-fi setting. Now a modern one like we live in in real life (remove magical elements from the story if it helps). Sure, the lesson, plot, and all the characters (with their same personality) might be the same; but you get a much different episode than the one Hasbro gave us.
What exactly makes up a setting?
This section is a long one.
A setting is so much more than the physical location of the events in a story, and many authors seem to make the mistake of assuming that. How many fanfiction stories have you read don’t even use that? How many stories have you read that only include that? Chances are, most of the fanfiction stories you’ve read can be used as answers to those two questions.
There are four important aspects of settings that an author needs to address to have a fully living story that can really make a reader feel as if they’re within a new world. Historical context, Geographical context, Physical context, and Psychological context.
Historical Context
Historical context helps to explain why things are the way the are, why everyone holds the beliefs they hold, and why everyone behaves the way they behave.
To give an example of historical context, let us take a look at the MLP episode, The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. Let's quickly assume that Griffonstone never lost the Idol of Boreas to the Arimaspi. How would the town look? Would all of the shacks we saw still be intact, or would they be replaced with much more grandiose buildings similar to Canterlot or Manehatten? How would everyone act? Would all of the griffons act the same as we saw in the episode, or would they act differently?
Now take a look at the historical context of Griffonstone as Hasbro had it actually play out, and compare it to what you imagined. Can you see the significance that bit of historical context makes to the setting?
To use a much more clear example, let’s look at the Season 5 Finale episodes, The Cutie Re-mark pt 1, and The Cutie Re-mark pt 2, in which Starlight Glimmer goes back in time to change the past (or the historical context of the world).
Since the changes Starlight makes don’t directly correlate with the different settings, I ask you to please overlook this plot hole in the finale for the purposes of this explanation.
In the first alternate timeline, the war with King Sombra, what was the setting like? Numerous towns were borderline ghost towns, and the Apple Family Orchard that we all know and love was a canning factory for apples. Even the characters themselves were all different. Compare Applejack in this timeline to Applejack in Season 1 episode 1. Notice the difference? This new Applejack is much more depressed than the upbeat one we were all first introduced to. The reason for this is because she has to keep working all day every day harvesting and canning apples to help keep the troops supplied for a war for which there seems to be no end. This change to the historical context (the full details of which we are forced to come up with our own explanations for) made that much difference on the character.
Now look at the second alternate timeline, the domination of Queen Chrysalis and her changelings. The world is filled with much more life than the first one, and not nearly so much depression. We see that many of Ponyville has fallen back to hide into the Everfree Forest where Zecora has taken everyone in to hide, protect, and lead them in a resistance against Queen Chrysalis. This has lead to a much more primal jungle setting for us to bear witness too.
The village even reflects this timeline's historical setting. The way the episode presents it gives off the feeling of being a haven, a place of safety all because of Zecora. Reed huts with ladders leading to rooms resting in branches, everything blending into the background, and the inhabitants much more happy and relaxed than the group first encountered. Everyone is also decked out in tribal paint, and armed with spears with hand-made arrowheads. Quite a difference from the original, and first alternate timeline.
Finally, look at the third alternate timeline, the reign of Nightmare Moon (the one that I personally think would be the most likely of them all). We are first immediately introduced to a world of eternal night...which is a world that is eternally in nighttime. We also see the castle of the Two Pony Sisters, which has also been altered to fit this new setting. The castle is impressive, towering, featuring gothic architecture that gives it a grand feeling of power. It’s dark colors, however, give it a bit more of a foreboding feel. We also see a change in the characters. Rarity, instead of possessing her usual caring nature that complemented her prim and proper demeanor, is now uptight and dismissive (as can be witnessed by her speciesist attitude towards Spike), and Rainbow Dash is an impatient bruiser with a drill sergeant’s attitude.
Without historical context, we can be left clueless regarding many important aspects of the world an author is presenting us.
Geographical Context
Geographical Context isn’t so much as the immediate physical location of a scene, but rather the country, state, region, and/or neighborhood of the story. It’s a bit difficult to pinpoint specifics for the geographical context of a setting since it can be broken down in so many different ways.
For example, the country of the United States of America (where I live and am thus familiar with it) is divided up into states, which are divided up into regions, which are divided up into counties, which are then divided up into towns.
However, anyone who has examined a map of Europe can easily tell that that is NOT how the countries in that continent are organized at all.
Now try the geographical context for the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as it is currently known to us. We can glean some knowledge about how the geographical context is set up from a few episodes here and there (like how each town in Equestria might be similar to a city-state based on the fact that each town/city sent its own competitors to the Equestria Games, and on the fact that each town/city sent its own delegate(s) to the Grand Equestria Pony Summit), but exact details haven’t really been given to us. Are there some towns that can be grouped together based on their region? Cultural commonality (like the “southern” states of the USA)? We really don’t know.
Why does the geographical context of a setting make a difference? Because specific locations in a world can have a huge impact on a setting; which can partly tie into historical context, but also not in other ways.
To use My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as a case study, compare the towns of Manehatten, Canterlot, and Ponyville together (throw in the town you live in too just for grins and giggles). What are the mannerisms in each town like? What’s the architecture like? How do the inhabitants behave towards others, or specific others (like someone of royalty or another form of political power)? What is/are the most noticeable/common attitude(s) in the town? What’s the primary concern of the inhabitants?
Starting to see what I mean? Geographical context is very important in bringing a setting to life.
Physical Context
This context is what most people think of when they think of a setting. To put it simply, the physical context of a setting is what parts of the setting that can be detected by use of the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. This is the part of the setting that actually puts the reader into the story. It’s one thing to hear about a setting, but it’s quite another to actually be there. By use of the five senses, it is the author’s job to do this.
Unfortunately, this specific context could take up several blog posts alone, so I’ll leave it as is for now, and move on to the final context that’s important for a fully immersive setting.
Physiological Context
This context is different from the other three in that it focuses on a character rather than a location. When creating the physiological context of a character, you’re setting up what makes them tick, how they think, what makes them who they are.
Just like geographical context, this one is hard to pinpoint specifics for. Some common ones in a lot of professionally written stories are:
Mood, health, ethnicity, religion, gender, family, and education.
Here are a few specifics that MLP fanfic authors might consider when creating the physiological context for the characters in his/her/their story:
Gender, family, education, health, mood, goals, species, social class, etc.
Just for fun, think of each member of the Mane 6, and figure out the physiological context for them. This is also very important when creating an OC that’s not flat, or a complete Mary/Gary Sue.
As you might have noticed, each of these contexts can overlap each other very easily, and that’s ok. As long as the author can figure each of these four categories out for the world of their story, they can create an immersive setting to weave into his/her story for the reader to lose himself in.
How is a Setting supposed to be used in a story?
So now that we understand what a setting is, and its importance; how does an author use it, especially when using words as the medium?
To start off, imagine a vampire, horror play using an empty stage; or a vampire, horror movie with nothing but a green screen setting. Now imagine a scene where the vampire is walking up to the main character from behind.
Pretty bland, huh? Lets spice it up with a setting... the wrong kind of setting first, just to help demonstrate the impact of the setting. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll just utilize physical context for this.
Rolling hills, bright sun (we’ll ignore the vampire weakness to the sun for now), cool summer temperatures, dandelions everywhere, birds singing, and a rabbit and deer out frolicking around. Lets also have the song The Hills are Alive from the musical, The Sound of Music playing in the background.
Does that sound like the kind of setting that belongs in either a vampire or a horror novel? Of course not! That kind of a setting doesn’t belong primarily for one reason: It doesn’t create the proper mood/atmosphere for the desired scene at all.
As an author, the primary usage of a setting will be to set the mood for something. Ever wonder why people in scary movies always walk down a dimly lit hall? Because it sets the proper mood (or attempts to, at least) for the scene. Ever wonder why Disney’s villains tend to have a bit of a lime green motif going on at some point (particularly during their big song)? It adds an evil feel to the scene to help compliment the character.
Now lets try to set up a proper setting for that vampire scene earlier. A long, dark, stone hallway with very little lighting coming from dying flames of torches. The air is cold, wet, and stagnant, making it a little tough to breath.
Much more fitting, eh? Let’s go a bit further, and add a tiny bit of physiological context in here to play up the mood even more. While movies can accomplish this with music (plays too, sometimes), written stories can’t really do that. So, we’ll have to substitute music with the character’s display of anxiety. We’ll call the character John.
John’s heart sounded like the hooves of race horses, thundering on the ground. It might as well have been, with how hard and fast it was beating against his chest. His shirt was drenched in a cold sweat, made worse by the damp, cold air that pressed against him. His hands, which he sometimes bragged would always be the steadiest in any emergency room he worked at, tremored non-stop.
“Just the cold is all.” He tried to reason to himself. “Just like Norfolk back home.”
Even that failed to convince him...
See how much of a difference that setting made as opposed to the blank one we started with?
Other Uses for a Setting
Introducing a Character
While a setting’s primary purpose is to create the mood of a scene, authors can use a setting for a number of other things as well. For example, a character can be very easily, and efficiently, introduced to a reader by bringing their bedroom/house to life. Who we are, and what we value, rubs off on our personal living spaces. For example, Compare these two screenshots from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. What can you tell about the owners just from looking at the room?
Yes, I know that we can tell that this next one is Fluttershy’s due to her being in it. Ignore her, and focus on the room.
We can easily tell who the owners are just from examining the room alone, and even learn more about the owners as well.
The top screenshot is can easily be identified as a dedicated fashionista from the mannequins and sewing table. I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually keep my work stuff in my bedroom (especially since I attend college, and work at Walmart). We can also tell that she’s someone with high class, and expensive, taste from the kind of bed she has, and from the arch designs on her wall (if they’re not actually arches). The fact that her room is also so spacious also hints at her not really hurting at all for money.
The bottom screenshot is quite different. The owner is obviously an animal lover judging from the fact that she has bird houses in her room, and a butterfly patterned blanket. The wood flooring and furniture, and flower picture also give the room a more nature-esc feel when placed in tandem with the bird houses. The numerous windows is telling in that the owner is either claustrophobic; or very much loves viewing nature, even from the solitude of her bedroom.
Just from describing the living area of the characters’ bedrooms, we gain great insight about them without even seeing them in action.
Catalyst for Plot
As the sub-section heading would lead you to believe, a setting can also be used to stimulate a character into action. For example, in Season 2 Episode 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the normal way of life is very bizarrely changed. Seriously, if you looked out the window and saw the sky filled with clouds made of cotton that were pouring down chocolate rain, and animals suddenly growing legs long enough to make them twice as tall as you are, wouldn’t you be motivated to do something? (ok, I’d probably just go back to bed, and wait for it all to blow over while wondering if someone had somehow drugged me in my sleep).
Another example is in Season 4 Episode 1, Princess Twilight Sparkle - pt 1. When Princesses Celestia and Luna, the co-rulers of Equestria, suddenly go missing, the citizens of the nation turn to Twilight Sparkle for direction. This is a setting that easily stimulates Twilight into action. Without the usual rulers of Equestria around, it’s up to Twilight to make sure the nation doesn’t fall into chaos (too bad the episode didn’t capitalize on that possible plot. Ah well, beggars can’t be choosers).
Act as the Antagonist
How in the world can a setting act as an antagonist in a story? Is that even possible? Yes, actually. Just not always exactly the way you might think.
In Episode 16 of Season 5, Made in Manehatten, Applejack and Rarity are sent to Manehatten to solve a friendship problem. First of all, they need to figure out what the friendship problem even is. They eventually discover Coco Pommel (an instant fan favorite from Season 4′s Rarity Takes Manehatten) is trying to revive the sense of community in her neighborhood of the town with a community-run play whose practice was discontinued when the original mastermind behind it left months/years prior (they say “many moons ago,” but I have no idea what that translates into), and decide to help her.
In this situation, the setting acts as the antagonist in two cases. The first is Applejack and Rarity trying to figure out why the heck they were sent to Manehatten to begin with. The second is when they help Coco Pommel resolve the issue of the community losing its sense of community.
Another example is one of my favorite comedic fanfics Foal Necromancer by Kyranis (which has sadly been discontinued with no announcement). A necromancer (who has no name at the beginning) is tired of being constantly hunted for years on end, so he somehow transports himself to Equestria. Unexpectedly, he arrives as a foal (child equine), and as an alicorn to boot. Since he’s now an infant of a royal subspecies of pony, he is eventually adopted by Princess Luna.
The setting acts as the antagonist here because the necromancer is struggling to adapt to a life in which he is safe, and does not have to be always worried that someone is trying to kill him (which turns out to be much harder than it appears...and entertaining).
Symbolize Things
...Yeah, self explanatory. Also, I’d be very impressed if a fanfic author actually did this.
Conclusion
WHOOO! That was indeed a long one. If any of you read this, I will be very impressed, proud, and likely even more motivated to try and put out some more reviews (I’m getting a better handle on managing my schoolwork this semester of college).
However, I would like to get some input from you guys as well. Is there anything about settings that you’ve observed that I didn’t mention, or failed to mention and describe correctly? Please leave a comment down below, as I’d very much like to expand my knowledge and critiquing abilities.
Also, if you liked this blog post, follow me on Tumblr as well. I hope to hear from you guys!
Well, I noticed you didn't mention the eternal rule of "show, don't tell", but I think we've all had that pounded into our heads enough that the lesson has either stuck or never will.
Good description of setting, and I'll definitely have to work on considering the other three points of setting context going forward. I will confess I've mostly just done physical context in the past. I look forward to more mini-lessons in the future.
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Heh, they'll come up as they come up. I'm mostly focusing on school right now. I had to install a site blocker to keep my from using my conputer to access Fimfiction, facebook, youtube, and a bunch of other sites during the day just to keep me from procrastinating.
As for "show don't tell," that'd have to get a whole blog to itself.